Month: March 2018

Enlarge / A Huawei phone shop in Vientiane, Laos. (credit: Getty Images | urf)

Chinese technology vendors Huawei and ZTE could soon be prevented from selling products to US companies and organizations that receive broadband funding from the Federal Communications Commission.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's new proposal would prevent Universal Service Fund money from being used "to purchase equipment or services from any communications equipment or service providers identified as posing a national security risk to communications networks or the communications supply chain."

Pai's proposal comes as President Donald Trump imposes new tariffs and other penalties on Chinese goods. But the proposed FCC policy has its roots in a 2012 Congressional report, which said that Huawei and ZTE equipment should not be used by US government systems because of the companies' alleged ties to the Chinese government. The report also encouraged private US companies to "consider the long-term security risks associated with doing business with either ZTE or Huawei for equipment or services" and to seek other vendors.

Since consumer-grade virtual reality became a real thing about two years ago, the high entry price for a complete VR setup has been one of the technology's main limiting factors. Sony is doing its best to reduce that barrier to entry, announcing last night that the price for PlayStation VR's popular "Doom VFR Bundle" is being reduced by $100, to $299.

That bundle includes a second-generation PSVR headset, the PlayStation Camera that's needed for head- and controller-tracking, a demo disc, and the virtual reality version of Bethesda's Doom remake. It does not include the system's optional, hand-tracking Move controllers, which retail for $100 a pair new (or often much less used). A separate "Skyrim VR" bundle, which does include those Move controllers, currently retails for $399 at most retailers. Those prices occasionally come down during sales.

Even with those caveats, the "all in" MSRP to get VR ready in the PlayStation ecosystem—including a console, headset, tracking camera, hand-tracking controllers, and a game—is now down to $700 without any retail discounts ($600 if you can suffice with a standard DualShock controller). That's the lowest price out there for a complete VR setup that features full head and hand-tracking—a similar PSVR package would have cost about $900 when the headset launched in late 2016.

The National Transportation Safety Board announced on Tuesday that it is investigating a fatal car accident involving a Tesla vehicle, which occurred in Mountain View, California last Friday. Tesla stock lost 8 percent in trading yesterday, and it was down an additional 4 percent in early trading on Wednesday.

"Unclear if automated control system was active at time of crash," the NTSB wrote. "Issues examined include: post-crash fire, steps to make vehicle safe for removal from scene."

Here is the scene on Highway 101S in #MountainView where a #Tesla caught on fire pic.twitter.com/ksnidlFgsw

— Dean C. Smith (@DeanCSmith) March 23, 2018

Tesla provided some context about the crash in a Tuesday blog post after the NTSB made its announcement. "The reason this crash was so severe is that the crash attenuator, a highway safety barrier which is designed to reduce the impact into a concrete lane divider, had either been removed or crushed in a prior accident without being replaced," Tesla wrote.

Enlarge / Then FBI Director James Comey participates in a news conference on child sex trafficking at FBI headquarters, June 23, 2014 in Washington, DC. (credit: Mark Wilson / Getty Images News)

The Department of Justice’s internal watchdog, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), has concluded that the FBI may have overstepped when it failed to exhaust internal options before pressing ahead in a high-profile 2016 legal clash with Apple.

The OIG issued a 17-page report on Tuesday, which describes the FBI’s actions two years ago during the so-called "FBI v. Apple" showdown. That case centered around the FBI’s attempt to unlock the iPhone 5C used by Syed Rizwan Farook, the man behind a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, in December 2015.

"We believe [the Cryptologic and Electronics Analysis Unit] should have checked with [Operational Technology Division’s] trusted vendors for possible solutions before advising OTD management, FBI leadership, or the [US Attorney’s Office] that there was no other technical alternative and that compelling Apple’s assistance was necessary to search the Farook iPhone," the report states.

Samuel Axon

CULVER CITY, Calif.—When Apple unveiled the iMac Pro in December, it did so with an assist from third-party developers. The company showcased creators who were working on applications that applied the iMac Pro's capabilities to new things previously not possible on prior, less-capable Mac hardware. Most notably, more than one dev was using the iMac Pro for virtual reality (VR) development, something Apple had announced its intentions to support at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June of last year.

One of the participating studios, Survios, had been approached by Apple to port its new title Electronauts to macOS. Electronauts is a virtual music-production tool that allows the user to DJ quantized music with various 3D tools, as if they were standing on a stage surrounded by equipment.